Nick McCarthy is one of those busy men whose diary must be the size of a poster. After leaving the band as Franz Ferdinand’s main songwriter in 2016 and moving to Germany, he realised his musical visions in a number of projects: from the anarchist pop collective Lunsentrio to the reboot of the cult krautrock band Embryo to the electro duo Ströme and projects by his wife, Manuela Gernedel. In between, he composes music for films and theatre and met musician and actor Niklas Mitteregger at the Residenztheater Munich in 2020. Together, the Nitsch project was launched and was promptly signed to the always-stylish Staatsakt label. This was followed by weird swansongs to the Occident, such as ‘SoSchön’, whose sound lies somewhere between indie rock and freak folk. But the duo have also mastered the dark, swirling Austropop brand ‘Ende der Welt’ with an unagitated coolness, which they capture song after song on their debut album, ‘Bar von Josefine’. The final proof that McCarthy’s departure from Franz Ferdinand was just as much the right decision as was joining this promising project with his colleague Mitteregger.